Codex Parisiensis, also known as Latin No. 653, is a manuscript of the late 4th/early 5th century Church Theologian

Pelagius Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British (Celtic Britons, Brittonic) theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius was accus ...

's ''Commentary on the Letters of Paul'' in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, written on parchment. After the commentary on Philemon, starting from the reverse side of leaf 289, there is a Vulgate version of the

Letter to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews () is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and ...

1:1-4:3 which contains some

Old Latin Old Latin, also known as Early, Archaic or Priscan Latin (Classical ), was the Latin language in the period roughly before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. A member of the Italic languages, it descends from a common Proto-Italic ...

readings. This is labelled as ''v'' in the Beuron numbering of Old Latin manuscripts, and VL 81 in the Vetus Latina Register of Latin New Testament manuscripts. Using the study of comparative writing styles (

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

), it has been assigned to the 8th/9th century CE.

Description

The manuscript is a

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

(precursor to the modern

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

format) containing the text of Pelagius's ''Commentary on the Letters of Paul'', written on 292 parchment folios (584 pages, sized 27cm x 18cm) in black ink with one column and 23 lines per page. On the first page of the manuscript is a short Poem which appears to be addressed to the Roman Emperor

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

, and this manuscript might have been a present to the Emperor himself. On the reverse side of the first page is a table of contents, with the main commentary commencing from the 7th page onwards. At least three, possibly four copyists worked on the manuscript. Biblical scholar

Alexander Souter Alexander Souter (14 August 1873 – 17 January 1949) was a Scottish biblical scholar and university professor Biography Souter was born in Perth, and studied at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge. He subsequently becam ...

describes them all as "careful" copyists who showed "great excellence" with their spelling, but with mistakes common to copyists. The commentary itself is mainly that of Pelagius, however there have been expansions to the commentary taken from the writings of

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

and Pseudo-Jerome.

Text

In comparing the quotations from the Pauline Letters in the manuscript to that of the Latin Vulgate, Souter noted over 200 places where the text differed from the standard Vulgate text. Souter concludes that the manuscript is a very good witness to Pelagius's original commentary, though after it had been brought in partial harmony with the Vulgate, but retaining many of its Old Latin wording. The value of the manuscript is therefore "very great" for the commentary's restoration.

History

The earliest history of the manuscript is unknown. It was likely written in North Italy around 800 CE, at some scriptorium in Verona, or Monza near Millan. Based on spelling and other peculiarities, it is likely the manuscript was copied from an examplar written in Spain. The manuscript was brought from Italy to France during the reign of

Henry II of France Henry II (; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was List of French monarchs#House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589), King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I of France, Francis I and Claude of France, Claude, Du ...

(reigned 1547-1559), whose coat of arms is stamped on the outer binding. It has three previous shelf marks written on the reverse side of the second folia, with the earliest (undated) one being DLXXXVIII (1088), second is 628 (year 1645), and the third is 3939 (year 1682). It is currently housed in the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(shelf number Latin 653) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Digital colour images of Latin No. 653 online
at the

. Pelagianism 8th-century manuscripts 9th-century manuscripts Manuscripts in Latin

Description

Text

History

See also

References

External links